'Let's give it a crack': Drone startup eyes natural disasters

Flying drones is fast becoming a backyard pastime in Australia, but chances are you wouldn't be qualified to fly the types of planes Marcus Ehrlich works with.

"It's not easy. You need a certain type of individual who has the training. The majority [of pilots] in our organisation are straight out of the defence force," the chief executive of Ninox Robotics says.

Ninox Robotics has had a big summer as the company has assisted on fire fronts and look towards a future of drone businesses making an impact. Credit:Edwina Pickles

The entrepreneur has drawn on Australian defence force alumni to help manage the growth path of the startup, which has had a very busy summer.

This has included showing how its unmanned drones can help assist during active bushfires, with the startup offering services to New South Wales' Rural Fire Service to map fire front images at night.

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"There tends not to be overnight intelligence on the fire front like that, but when you have a drone without a person in it, you can [do it]," Ehrlich says.

Ninox drones can be used to stream and provide thermal mapping of bushfires. While the business currently offers everything from agriculture project use to animal tracking, at this stage Ehrlich believes Australia's drone and technology space will increasingly be turning to the issue of extreme weather.

Ninox Robotics founder Marcus Ehrlich with one of his dronesCredit:Edwina Pickles.

"As global warming causes disasters to increase, you see more examples of this technology and how we use it. That [fire tracking] is probably the most 'Australian' use case we have."

Ninox Robotics is approaching the $1 million revenue mark and is looking to capture bigger name clients in the next 12 months.

Ehrlich believes the local drones sector is finally at a tipping point and can now show drones are more than just cool.

"Drones have gone from being good ideas, to nice to have, to 'let’s give it a crack'," he says.

In 2015, the global unmanned aerial sector was worth $1.8 billion, according to Statista. By 2022, it's expected to hit the $21 billion mark.

Ninox is not alone, with a range of agricultural and conservation-focused drone companies emerging in recent years. Canberra business Wildlife Drones tracks animals for research purposes, for example, while ASX-listed Parazero entered Australia last year with the offer of "parachutes" designed to protect commercial drones if they malfunction and fall from the sky.

Ehrlich says his business is definitely too young to be toying with the idea of an ASX listing, but that doesn't mean the startup won't be considering how to raise more capital in the year to come.